The token litigator slot will look at trends in cases decided over the past year or so. In particular, this session will examine courts’ views on form versus substance, enforceability issues, and significant family law developments. Rather than dryly summarise cases that have been talked about at every conference over the last year, the hope is that the session offers practical lessons emerging from the cases and commentary. Due to the identity of the speakers, you will not have to hear about Wong v Grand View, so it promises to be an engaging session.

As families, assets, and business interests become increasingly international, succession planning is growing more complex. Different jurisdictions often apply conflicting rules on inheritance, matrimonial property, taxation, forced heirship, trusts, and the recognition of wills, creating uncertainty and the potential for disputes. Private client advisers must navigate overlapping legal systems, determine which laws apply, and coordinate planning across multiple countries to ensure clients’ intentions are respected. The growing mobility of individuals and wealth makes cross-border succession and conflict-of-laws issues a central challenge for modern private client practice. 

Tax and personal planning can be upended by family disputes that spill into litigation. Inheritance rifts or clashes over family wealth management often force disclosures that catch the eye of tax authorities—turning a private conflict into audits, assessments, and potential erosion of family wealth. The Bettencourt affair—also the subject of a Netflix series—is a cautionary tale: once intimate facts go public, control is lost. Even when you are convinced you are in the right, it is essential to consider the potential tax repercussions before initiating legal action. In some cases, avoiding litigation may be the wisest choice to prevent collateral damage that could ultimately prove more harmful than the dispute itself. 

Increasing longevity is becoming one of the most significant forces reshaping private client work. As people live longer, healthier lives, wealth planning must evolve from a one-time exercise into an ongoing process that adapts to changing family structures, health needs, tax regimes, and asset values over decades. Longer lifespans are accelerating lifetime wealth transfers, while also creating new challenges around capacity, cognitive decline, financial security, and increasingly complex family dynamics. In response, trusts, foundations, and other planning structures are likely to become more sophisticated, flexible, and widely used to preserve wealth, manage control, and reduce the risk of future family disputes. 

Geopolitical uncertainty, regulatory divergence, and increasing global fragmentation are driving significant shifts in where individuals, families, and businesses choose to live, invest, and hold assets. Private client advisers are increasingly helping clients navigate cross-border relocation, changing tax residency, citizenship and immigration options, asset protection, and succession planning across multiple jurisdictions. As mobility becomes both an opportunity and a risk-management strategy, advisers must balance legal, tax, regulatory, and family considerations while adapting to a rapidly changing international landscape. 

How the world’s most successful families and Family Offices operate to maintain their wealth and their relevance well past the third generation.